Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
John Muir was an early proponent of a view we still hold today—that much of California was pristine, untouched wilderness before the arrival of Europeans. But as this groundbreaking book demonstrates, what Muir was really seeing when he admired the grand vistas of Yosemite and the gold and purple flowers carpeting the Central Valley were the fertile gardens of the Sierra Miwok and Valley Yokuts Indians, modified and made productive by centuries of harvesting, tilling, sowing, pruning, and burning. Marvelously detailed and beautifully written, Tending the Wild is an unparalleled examination of Native American knowledge and uses of California's natural resources that reshapes our understanding of native cultures and shows how we might begin to use their knowledge in our own conservation efforts.
M. Kat Anderson presents a wealth of information on native land management practices gleaned in part from interviews and correspondence with Native Americans who recall what their grandparents told them about how and when areas were burned, which plants were eaten and which were used for basketry, and how plants were tended. The complex picture that emerges from this and other historical source material dispels the hunter-gatherer stereotype long perpetuated in anthropological and historical literature. We come to see California's indigenous people as active agents of environmental change and stewardship. Tending the Wild persuasively argues that this traditional ecological knowledge is essential if we are to successfully meet the challenge of living sustainably.
M. Kat Anderson
M. Kat Anderson is a Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis; Associate Ecologist at the Agricultural Experimental Station at the University of California, Davis; and a faculty member in the Graduate Group in Ecology at the University of California, Davis. She is coeditor, with T. C. Blackburn, of Before the Wilderness: Native Californians as Environmental Managers (1993) and coeditor, with Henry T. Lewis, of Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness by Omer C. Stewart (2002).
Related to Tending the Wild
Related ebooks
Native Harvests: American Indian Wild Foods and Recipes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals among California's Oaks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Land Has Memory: Indigenous Knowledge, Native Landscapes, and the National Museum of the American Indian Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The American Chestnut: An Environmental History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Taking Root: The Nature Writing of William and Adam Summer of Pomaria Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Southern Appalachian Celebration: In Praise of Ancient Mountains, Old-Growth Forests, and Wilderness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rewilding Agricultural Landscapes: A California Study in Rebalancing the Needs of People and Nature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feeding Cahokia: Early Agriculture in the North American Heartland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Field Guide to the Piedmont: The Natural Habitats of America's Most Lived-in Region, From New York City to Montgomery, Alabama Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Natural History of California: Second Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdible and Useful Wild Plants of the United States and Canada Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are the Land: A History of Native California Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the War on Invasive Species: A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wildness: Relations of People and Place Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The World We Used to Live In: Remembering the Powers of the Medicine Men Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature, and Social Action Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRecovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trees of Power: Ten Essential Arboreal Allies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Agroforestry and Biodiversity Conservation in Tropical Landscapes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsReclaiming the Commons: Biodiversity, Traditional Knowledge, and the Rights of Mother Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Food Sovereignty the Navajo Way: Cooking with Tall Woman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCoppice Agroforestry: Tending Trees for Product, Profit, and Woodland Ecology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Native American History For You
The State of North Carolina with Native American Ancestry: The Formation of the Eastern and Coastal Counties in North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Soul of an Indian: And Other Writings from Ohiyesa (Charles Alexander Eastman) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Element Encyclopedia of Native Americans: An A to Z of Tribes, Culture, and History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNATIVE AMERICAN MYTHS: collected 1636–1919 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walking in the Sacred Manner: Healers, Dreamers, and Pipe Carriers--Medicine Wom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The History Of Navajo Culture Guide to the Correct utilization and Loss of Sacred Items of Navajo People Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaptivity of the Oatman Girls: Being an Interesting Narrative of Life among the Apache and Mohave Indians Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBecoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI By David Grann Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Captivity of the Oatman Girls Among the Apache and Mohave Indians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5They Called Me Number One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5365 Days Of Walking The Red Road: The Native American Path to Leading a Spiritual Life Every Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Afraid to Ask Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Island of the Blue Dolphins: The Complete Reader's Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killers of the Flower Moon - Summarized for Busy People: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKilling Crazy Horse: The Merciless Indian Wars in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Trail of Tears: by Alexander Cooper - An Epic History On the Removal of Seminoles, Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokees Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBad Indians Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Survived the End of the World: Lessons from Native America on Apocalypse and Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Elk: The Life of an American Visionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, & Endurance in Early America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comanche Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My People The Sioux Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Tending the Wild
11 ratings0 reviews